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"Have you solved the mystery of the submerged bed?" smiled Jean. Lydia laughed. "I'm not probing too deeply into the matter," she said. "Poor Mrs. Cole-Mortimer was terribly upset." "She would be," said Jean. "It was her own eiderdown!" This was the first hint Lydia had received that the house was rented furnished.
Cole-Mortimer had mentioned her name. Then in a flash she recalled the suspicions of Jack Glover, which she had covered with ridicule. The association made her feel a little uncomfortable, and Jean Briggerland, whose intuition was a little short of uncanny, must have read the doubt in her face. "Mrs. Meredith expected to see us, didn't she, Margaret?" she said, addressing the twittering hostess.
Cole-Mortimer was a devout Catholic and it might easily be some cherished keep-sake of hers. The girl carried the cross to the window; an "X" had been scrawled by some sharp-pointed instrument at the junction of the bars. There was no other mark to identify the trinket. She put the cross in her bag, and when she saw Mrs. Cole-Mortimer again she forgot to ask her about it.
"I telephoned to the hospital yesterday." It was so unlike her conception of the girl, that Lydia stared. "The mother is in isolation," Lydia went on, "and Madame Souviet says that the poor woman has no money and no friends. I thought of going down to the hospital to-day to see if I could do anything for her." "You'd better not, my dear," warned Mrs. Cole-Mortimer nervously.
Nor was the disappearance of the Jungle Queen noticed for two days. It was Mrs. Cole-Mortimer, in settling up her accounts with Jack, who mentioned the "yacht." "The Jungle Queen," said Jack, "that's the motor-launch, isn't it? I've seen her lying in the harbour. I thought she was Stepney's property."
She, herself, she explained to her discomforted hostess, was ready to go back at once, and the prolongation of Mrs. Cole-Mortimer's stay depended upon Lydia's plans. A startling switch of cause and effect, for Mrs. Cole-Mortimer had understood that Jean's will controlled the plans of the party.
She left by the eleven o'clock train, joining Mrs. Cole-Mortimer on the station. That lady had arranged to spend a day in Paris, and the girl was not sorry, after a somewhat bad crossing of the English Channel, that she had not to continue her journey through the night. The South of France was to be a revelation to her.
"I don't quite know where your folly comes in, but perhaps you will tell me," but Jean was laughing softly. "Go on and make your will," she said mockingly. "And when you've finished we'll go into the rooms and chase the lucky numbers. Poor dear Mrs. Cole-Mortimer is feeling a little neglected, too, we ought to do something for her." The day and night passed without any untoward event.
Cole-Mortimer is very emphatic on that point." "Has the body been found?" asked Mr. Briggerland. "Nothing has been found but the chauffeur," said the detective. After a few more questions he took Jack outside. "It looks very much to me as though it were one of those crimes of passion which are so frequent in this country," he said.
Briggerland, "I told them that you were unaware of the fact that you had been shot at, and if you discussed it with the police, you would make me look rather foolish." When Lydia and Mrs. Cole-Mortimer had gone, Jean seized an opportunity which the absence of the maid offered. "I hope you are beginning to see how perfectly insane your scheme was," she said.
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